Baby has finally arrived!

I was so anxious for the end of this pregnancy.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with my other kids while I was in the hospital, had no idea where they'd go.  Wasn't sure if Trent would even be able to be there with me; either taking tests or taking care of the other kids.  I am such a planner, I like to have everything worked out.  And I just couldn't do that with this pregnancy.  

Trent's dad and step mom called the week before I was due to ask if we'd like for them to come out to help with the kids.  What a HUGE blessing that was!  I wasn't expecting them to come, but so relieved that they were coming.  It's a long 24hr drive from Rexburg, ID to San Antonio.  They got here the day before I was due.  I have never gone into labor on my own, all three of my previous labors were induced so I anticipated that that is what would happen with this one also.  However, the military won't induce till 41 weeks.  When I went to my 40 week check up they set the induction date for Dec 5th.  8 days later.  I explained our situation to the nurse practitioner that I saw, letting her know that we had family here right now but didn't know how long they'd be able to stay for as they had to get back to catch a flight to Hong Kong.  Trent had 3 tests the following week.  If there was anyway possible that we could move up that date it would be the best for our situation.  The response I got was, sorry we don't really care about your situation, we care about our policies--okay, so that those exact words, but pretty much.  I knew baby was bigger than the others, but she didn't listen to me when I told her, she just blew me off, as she did with most of the things I told her.  I get that it is best for babies to come when they are 'ready' but when 'ready' could mean delivering on my own I'd rather be induced knowing I've got my kids taken care of and my husband at my side.

We spent much of Thanksgiving weekend doing fun things around San Antonio with Trent's dad and step-mom.  I walked around as much as possible, hoping to get things started, all with no luck.

Monday, Dec 2nd I spent most of the day running errands.  I ran to Costco--about 30mins away, went to the mall with Rhonda to do some Christmas shopping for grand kids. We stopped by Build-A-Bear so Rhonda could make herself a Santa for her collection.  She wrote her wish down and stuffed it into the bear.  Her wish--that Janel's water would break and this baby would just come already.  And I did 6 loads of laundry.  After we got all the kids to bed I folding all the laundry, got mine put away, and all the kids' laundry into baskets for them to put away in the morning.  

I got all my stuff ready to go take a shower and get ready for bed.  Trent's dad was in the bathroom so I laid on my bed to wait for him to come out. Trent came in to get ready for bed about the time I laid down, he had a test the next morning and had been down studying.  We were talking when I felt a painful pop.  It startled me and I said 'ouch, that was weird' out loud.  It took a full minute before I felt the liquid coming, then I started yelling 'GRAB A TOWEL!'  There was one sitting on the floor next to the bed.  I may have yelled it more than once.  Trent handed me the towel and I wrapped it between my legs and ran for the bathroom, laughing.  Sure enough, my water had broke.  I hollered to Rhonda who was in her doorway next to the bathroom that her Build-A-Bear wish had just come true.  That was 9:30pm. And just for the record, the bed stayed dry. :)

We quickly finished packing a bag and wrapped towels around me and headed to the hospital.  I left quite a trail from the car to the entrance of the hospital where Trent insisted that he get a wheelchair for me.  I didn't want one, but I hate wet squeaky shoes so I allowed it.  We put a towel down in the chair and headed in.  The triage nurse did a quick swab to make sure it really was amniotic fluid I was leaking--seriously with as much fluid that was there they still had to do the swab--it was definitely positive for amniotic fluid.  YAY!  They couldn't send me home now :)

Contractions started coming about every 6 mins about then, but they weren't unbearable.  I got settled into a different room and around midnight/1am the nurse came in to start pitocin to get things moving a little faster.  I've had 3 other pitocin inducted labors and did pretty will with them for a while.  This one, not so much.  I don't know if they turned the pit up all the way instead of just a little at a time or what but after about an hour I couldn't take the pain anymore and asked for the epidural. It took a little while for the anesthesiologist to come in and get things started and I was dying by the time he got there.  Never before had I felt anything like it.  You'd think after 3 the 4th would be a breeze.  Not so!  I got relief once that epidural was in, but was unable to get comfortable enough to sleep.  However, by 6am I was in so much pain again.  They called the anesthesiologist back in to give me something more, he just hooked up a clicker to the epidural drip and told me to click it when I was feeling pain. THAT DID NOT WORK!  I was in so much pain that I was vomiting, I was trying so hard to take deep breaths, but I couldn't. And I was getting slightly irritated at Trent who kept telling me I needed to breath.  :)  So back in came the anesthesiologist and he gave me a shot of something into my epidural catheter that worked amazingly well, for about 2hr and then wore off.  He had to come back in 3 more times before the whole thing was over.  

Baby didn't do well during this process.  With each contraction his heart rate dropped really low, from 150's down to 80.  And then took a bit to come back up.  They were pumping me full of fluids to help steady his heart rate, but they were afraid that he had a pinched cord and so they ended up putting in fluid directly onto the baby to see if that would release the pinch. Somewhere in there baby had pooped, so now they were afraid that he had swallowed it. There was much talk of emergency c-section. But a few hrs of fluids put back on him his heart rate steady out and he started doing much better.

I had come to the hospital at a 3, by 6 am I was at a 7.  And I stopped dead there for 6 hrs.  Very unusual for someone delivering their 4th baby.  They were afraid he was too big to come down.  Then after an ultrasound they found that he was facing up and to the left.  Not so good.  There was much talk of a c-section.  Or trying to deliver in the O.R. just in case baby didn't respond well.  But first I had to make some more progress.  They had me switching positions every 15 mins.  Far left, far right, on hands and knees--which is not easy to do with numb legs.  We did that for about an hour and the doctors came back in to check me again. (I say 'doctors' because there were like 4 or 5 of them coming in and out--we were at a teaching hospital)  Still no change, I was totally discouraged and in more pain than I could handle and I was vomiting again.  They had me on my hands and knees again at this point and I was just ready for it to be over, I didn't even care what happened.  So they had me roll over, they were getting me prepped to have a c-section, they were getting ready to put another IV in and the anesthesiologist was on his way back in to get me ready.  One of the docs wanted to check me one more time, even though they just had 5 mins before.  And what would you know, in those 5 mins I went from a 7 to a 10, fully complete and ready to push.  I was shocked!  After the meds kicked in I felt a renewed sense of strength. Horray!  No c-section for me!  (and all I could think about was I really want to take a shower and I won't get that for another day if I have a c-section!) They had me push a few times to see where baby was at, cuz he was still high and to see if they could turn him.  They thought that they had gotten him turned, so they wanted to just let him come down a bit before I pushed some more.  Well, he never moved.  After 4 different people check me they determined that the baby was stuck on my sacrum and pushing the way I was wasn't going to move him.  He was really stuck good.  There was a lot of whispering in the room between all the residences, but no one was really talking to us, just amongst themselves.  They decided that I should try to roll on my right side and push like that for a bit to see if he could move.  That was really uncomfortable!  But it didn't do anything.  Then the thought maybe I should get on my hands and knees and push that way.  I probably pushed 5 times like that and then they had me flip over, it worked!  He had moved down off my sacrum and was born about 10 mins later, after a full hour of pushing.  But because he had pooped they didn't want to stimulate him before the NICU team had a chance to suction out his lungs.  They had to intubate him to do that.  I watched his limp little body come out and the doc who delivered him just held him up against her as they quickly cut the cord and he was handed off.  No crying, which is what they wanted.  His first apgar score was a 2.  It only took a minute and they had him screaming, and he hasn't stopped. That was by far the hardest and longest labor I've experienced.

He was only 8lbs 10ozs and 21 3/4 inches long.  Much smaller than I thought.  I was sure he was well over 9lbs.  He felt so so big. A few hours after he was born we discovered that he is tongue tied, which makes it hard for him to get a good latch when nursing. Hopefully we can get it cut soon cuz it hurts me too. He has a fuzzy head of hair and everyone just loves him!  After much discussion we decided on the name of Andrew Jared Lyman. (middle name same as his Daddy)  We've been calling him Drew though.  I love how Hunter says 'Andrew.'  He loves having a little baby around, always wanting to touch and hold him and kiss him.  Carter and Hanna both love to watch him and hold him.  Carter is wanting to walk around with him, but I'm not so sure I like that idea so much.  Adjusting to a newborn is always hard, he loves to sleep, but only while being held.  So I sleep in the recliner with him on my chest.  Well, not so much sleep as just laying there all night long.  

The picture on the left shows the big bruise on his forehead (just looks super swollen) from where he was stuck, as well as his fuzzy head.

 

Going home!  Staying at the hospital is not so much fun, I really really wanted to go after 24hrs, but they wouldn't let us.  Hunter was SO excited that I was home, and to kiss baby.